Qantas pilots disappointed with Senate report

Pilots are disappointed a proposal to force airlines to offer overseas-based cabin crew the same pay and conditions as local staff has been rejected by a Senate inquiry.

The upper house's transport committee has recommended the Senate not pass independent senator Nick Xenophon's draft laws, which would have ensured that overseas-based crew utilised by Australian airlines were not disadvantaged in comparison to their domestic co-workers.

"We know current management at Qantas is intent on outsourcing the jobs of Australian Qantas workers to Asia," Australian and International Pilots Association vice president Richard Woodward said in a statement on Friday.

"Senator Xenophon's recommendation in this area would prevent them from hollowing out the Flying Kangaroo in this country."

Captain Woodward said Qantas had been using Asian cabin crew on the Australian legs of international flights and they were paid "just a fraction of the Australian minimum wage".

But Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said if restrictions were placed on the use of overseas-based crew on international services flying between Australian cities it would reduce the viability of several Jetstar routes.

"These tag flights include routes that support inbound tourism to regional centres such as Singapore-Darwin-Cairns," she said in a statement.

The Senate committee also recommended another bill, jointly sponsored by Senator Xenophon and Greens leader Bob Brown, not be passed.

The so-called Still Call Australia Home Bill requires Qantas to maintain its principal operational centre in Australia.

It would also force the Flying Kangaroo to keep the majority of its maintenance, flight operations and training in Australia.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce in November said the draft laws would put the business in jeopardy and threaten jobs by locking the company inside Australian borders.

"This is protectionism," he told the Senate committee, adding Qantas operated in a global aviation industry.

"If you want to survive and succeed we must be free to pursue global opportunities."

In its final report, released on Thursday evening, the transport committee agreed.

"The committee remains mindful of the potentially adverse effects of the bill on Qantas' ability to conduct business in a competitive manner in overseas markets and may restrict those bodies covered by the draft amendments to being essentially domestic operations," the report states.

"The committee (also) accepts the evidence provided by some submitters that the Aircraft Crew Bill has the potential to be unduly restrictive on the operations of Australian airlines in foreign markets."

The committee found that given the highly competitive nature of the aviation industry the cabin crew changes "would be detrimental to Australia's international aviation operators".